Thermal management remains a significant challenge in consumer devices such as set top boxes and the like. As set top boxes, for example, exhibit increased functionality and device complexity with the introduction of additional components such as smart card readers, more heat is generated by and introduced into the device. That heat needs to be dissipated. In turn, there is a continuing need for an improved thermal management system in such devices.
Thermal management becomes more challenging in the face of pressures to miniaturize and reduce the size of set top boxes due to consumer preference. A greater degree of compactness coupled with an increased number of internal components and functionalities further concentrates heat within the device in a smaller space.
Not only is the realization of an effective thermal management system challenging for these devices such as set top boxes, but it represents a further expense over the basic costs for the enclosure (i.e., cover) and the components themselves. Thus, there is a need for a thermal management system, which is effective in its role of cooling components of a device such as a set top box and which does not introduce a significant cost increase in the overall manufacture of the consumer device (e.g., the set top box).